


better

by peacefrog



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Coda, Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 13:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10466286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefrog/pseuds/peacefrog
Summary: Jesus was awake with the door half open when Daryl knocked.“You can come in, Daryl.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Coda for episode 7x15.

“You can stay with us tonight. I’ll take the couch.”

Daryl lay there in the dark for minutes or hours, thinking about the last time he’d washed blood from his hair. He’d watched it swirl down the drain of the shower in Jesus’ trailer. After, Jesus gave him clothes and a bed and curled up on the floor beside it. Before sleep came to take him, Daryl had wanted to roll over and invite him in.

Now, he couldn’t push the thoughts from his mind. Jesus upstairs, curled up in the bed Daryl hadn’t slept in for weeks. He wondered if the sheets smelled musty, and then he couldn’t stop wondering. He would just go check, just in case. Offer Jesus a new set from the hall closet and then return to the couch in the living room.

Jesus was awake with the door half open when Daryl knocked.

“You can come in, Daryl.” Daryl knew he was smiling before he could even see Jesus’ face.

“Just wanted to see if you needed anything.” Daryl clicked the door shut behind him.

“Yeah,” Jesus said, casually leaning against the headboard, “I can’t sleep either.”

Daryl hesitated in the doorway, then realized waiting for an invitation into his own room was ridiculous. He took the armchair in the corner. In the lamplight, Jesus was half in shadow on the bed.

“You worried about what’s going to happen?” Jesus asked.

“Nah. We got the guns.” Daryl thought of Dwight languishing in his cell and resisted the urge to laugh. “They should be worried about us.”

There was another long stretch of silence. Daryl watched Jesus fold his hands across his belly in the half-light. His toes flexed against the covers.

“You can have your bed back if you really want it.”

“S’alright,” Daryl said, standing and making his way to the door.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Come on. This bed is a lot bigger than the one in my trailer.”

Daryl paused with his back turned, then actually started blushing. Before he could talk himself out of it, Jesus was making room for him on the bed, and Daryl was squeezing himself into one tight corner, nearly falling from the edge.

“Better, right?”

Daryl reached over and clicked off the lamp, hiding his blush in the dark. “I’ve slept on worse.”

Jesus laughed. “Have you ever let your guard down? Just wondering.”

“Have you?”

“I thought that’s what I was doing when I invited you into this bed.”

Daryl turned his head, but couldn’t see Jesus through the dark. He turned on his side then, away from Jesus, and closed his eyes. He was busy thinking about the last time anyone had held him close in the dark, years and years ago, when Jesus reached out a hand.

“Daryl,” he said, touching Daryl’s shoulder with the tips of his fingers. He shifted closer and flattened his palm. “Is this okay?”

Daryl didn’t speak, but shifted back toward the contact. Jesus moved his hand lower, slinked his arm around Daryl’s waist, and Daryl pressed his whole body into Jesus’ warmth. Jesus was smaller than him, but Daryl felt entirely surrounded, bound by the safety of the arm pulling tighter around his middle.

“If you want me to stop, I will,” Jesus breathed against Daryl’s neck.

“No,” Daryl choked out. “Don’t stop.”

Daryl slept soundly after that, dreams quiet and calm for the first time in years. For once, there was no blood. Only Jesus wrapped around his back, warm against his shoulders, their fingers tangling together on top of the covers.


End file.
